Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 22, 1993 TAG: 9303220352
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT NEWSFUN WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THIS VAN BRINGS ART TO YOU
Almost everything you wanted to know about African art, traditions and lifestyles is packed inside a bright yellow van with painted flowers, animals, crayons, hearts and a house on its sides and top.This van - appropriately dubbed ARTVAN - is owned by Roanoke's Art Museum of Western Virginia. It has been on the road since February, stopping at a different school each week, where its African art exhibit is unloaded and set up in the school's library.
There, students visit the exhibit to learn about Africa - where it is, who lives there, what they do and why they do it. They see African masks, drums, money, rainmakers, clothing and personal items such as combs and jewelry. But more important than seeing these things, kids can touch most of them, pass them around and really feel the wood, metal or fabric as their users do on a continent three times the size of our own country.
John Wiercioch is the museum's ARTVAN coordinator. He gathered the exhibit's pieces from the art museum, the Harrison Museum of African American Culture in Roanoke and three area collectors Wiercioch drives the ARTVAN to the schools and sets up the exhibit, then meets with the teachers and tells them about each piece and the cultures they come from.
One of the most interesting things about the exhibit, titled "Vital Forces: Art of West Africa," is that the pieces were never even considered art until about the 1920s. Before then, many in Western culture (Europe, North and South America) looked upon African works as nothing more than simple objects of everyday use.
But today, art is much more than paintings and sculpture. It's also things we see every day and the way they make us feel.
One 7-year-old visiting the exhibit this winter exclaimed to Wiercioch, "You know, these Africans sure make a lot of neat stuff." And Wiercioch agrees. "The work will work its own magic. That's why [the African people] like to live with it."
The African masks and costumes displayed were used in special ceremonies in Africa. They are art. Even a worn and decorated hunter's jacket and a wooden comb that looks like a giant hair pick are art. (Wiercioch says the comb is given to an African woman by a man who makes it for her, and it is so special that she may never use it in front of other men.)
These objects are handmade (how many handmade items do you own?) and were used often, which is why they are worn and faded. "These cultures don't make anything just to be looked at." Wiercioch says. "Everything they make is made to be used."
The Africans who use these items believe they are inhabited by the owner's spirit. The more a person handles an object, the more that person's spirit is a part of that object.
A sitting stool, for example, was an object of power, Wiercioch says. "More than furniture, no one sits on another's stool and everyone's personal stool becomes a container of their life-force [their spirit] and a symbol of their achievements." In some cultures, when people died, their stools were blackened with soot and placed in a special shrine room of other blackened stools.
One thing kids are always fascinated to learn, Wiercioch says, is that the cultures represented in this exhibit do not have a written language - no books, no libraries. But, Wiercioch says they do communicate through spoken language. And, as difficult as it is to imagine, they communicate through rhythm - their music and dance, even a colorful pattern woven into a fabric. These take the place of a written language.
Wiercioch is also asked about the masks. Why, kids want to know, are they so scary to look at?
Wiercioch explains they are used to chase away bad things. For instance, a fire watcher mask was given to the fastest runner in a village during the dry seasons. The runner would wear the mask and monitor the cooking fires, which could destroy the village if they weren't extinguished properly. If the mask wasn't scary, people wouldn't pay close attention to their fires. Even though it is frightening, the mask is worn to keep the community safe.
In fact, Wiercioch says, "It's safe to say everything that's made is for the good of the community."
The ARTVAN is taking its "Vital Forces: Art of West Africa" exhibit to 17 Roanoke Valley schools this spring. The museum wants to extend its travels to schools in other parts of Western Virginia, if additional funding becomes available. A new exhibit is in the works for next year.